Andrew Roachford has been around for years, bursting on to the scene in the late 80's with classics 'Cuddly Toy' and 'Family Man', recently finishing a tour with Mike and the Mechanics providing lead vocals when Paul Carracks busy doing other things and now going out on his own to celebrate recent offering 'The Beautiful Moment'.
Having toured with some famous names, such as Terence Trent Darby and The Christians and signing a seven album deal with Colombia, Roachford became one of the record labels biggest selling acts for ten years.Tonight sees the showcase of his new album, this is one of 6 gigs in the UK and 11 in Germany running throughout September, October and November.
'Something Beautiful',and 'Real Again' have been single releases from the current album.
I'd never seen Roachford before live, but I'd heard amazing things about him, so I was prepared to be blown away.
The Jam House is a little gem hidden away in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and they do host some class acts of late, tonight was no exception.
I arrived way too early tonight, 20.30 hours after dropping my wife off in Moseley, oh my gosh two hours later and after several bottles of water and a lush coffee, wish I'd had two. We were ready to rock and roll., thank goodness.
Roachford came on stage around 10.30ish, way passed my bed time, I was actually expecting to turn in to a pumpkin at some stage. A tiny stage with his band, a drummer, who was new, bass and lead guitarist and obviously Mr Roachford. They didn't need anyone else!
The set went on for what felt like an eternity, this was actually a good thing though, lots of adlib and audience participation which was really cool.
The audience really was a mixed bag, quite a few youngsters with quite a few Forty-Something's thrown in for good measure, me included.
We were treated to a 13 song set with a few covers thrown in the mix, namely Oasis's 'Wonderwall' and Mike and the Mechanics 'Over My Shoulder'.
Showcasing a mix of Roachford classics,including 'Cuddly Toy' and mixing it up with the new album, with tracks such as 'Something Beautiful' and 'Real Again'. The set was quite a mixed bag but at times full of so much energy and zest.
Their were fans in the audience that Roachford knew as he referred to them as familiar faces, I was worried at a couple of stages cause there was what can only be described as a middle aged man with stalking tendencies right in front of Roachford all night, first his phone came out to take snaps and record, then the camera, then whilst I was down the front he did his Dad dancing and obviously didn't know half the songs, cause he was making them up as he went along, it did make me chuckle, but not fun when he's the tallest man in the crowd!
The audience participation was mint, at every opportunity Roachford would hold the mike out to hear the audience sing back at him, it was pure class.
It was hot and sweaty but no-one cared, this night was about enjoying the party and participating at every opportunity and that the audience duly did.
Roachford hasn't lost any of his zest or passion for the music, looking like a Cheshire cat at times that had certainly got the cream.
I think this is one of the happier gigs I've been too and it was a pleasure to witness such an iconic figure from the British Music Scene.
Definitely one to be put on your list of artists to see if he's round your neck of the woods, believe me you'll thoroughly enjoy it and you wont be disappointed.
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.